Bugged in Biblical Proportions

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A newly emerged adult cicada dries its wings on a tree in Arlington, Virginia on May 12, 2004. Starting this week, across much of the eastern United States, from Georgia north to southern New York and as far west as Illinois, the cicadas will emerge from their 17 years of sucking on tree roots underground to engage in a two-week orgy of calling, mating, laying eggs and then dying. John Pryke/Reuters

A member of the National Anti-locusts Committee prepares to fumigate locusts in the village of Soatanimbary in the Menabe region of western Madagascar, March 29, 2013. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) reports that half the island nation has been infected by locusts which are threatening the production of rice, the country's main staple. Clarel Faniry Rasoanaivo/Reuters

A girl plays on a beach as a swarm of pink locusts flies overhead near Corralejo, on the Spanish Canary Island of Fuerteventura, November 29, 2004. Authorities in the Canaries have issued an alert as swarms of locusts arrived over the weekend from western Africa, with environmental experts estimating that some 100 million of the insects have reached the Canaries. STR New/Reuters

Locusts make their way from Egypt just before they land in Kerem Shalom near the border with Egypt, in southern Israel's Negev Desert, March 11, 2013. Israeli agricultural officials were continuing efforts to stave off swarms of locust making their way to the country's south in hopes of avoiding a biblical plague two weeks ahead of the Passover holiday. Ariel Schalit/AP

US President George W. Bush is chased by a cicada as he walks up the steps to Air Force One outside of Washington at Andrews Air Force Base, May 25, 2004. The nation's capital is swamped with the once every seventeen-year appearance of the cicadas. Larry Downing/Reuters

This photo provided by the University of Connecticut, shows a cicada in Pipestem State Park in West Virginia on May 27, 2003. Any day now, cicadas with bulging red eyes will creep out of the ground after 17 years. For a few buggy weeks, residents from North Carolina to Connecticut will be outnumbered by 600 to 1. Chirs Simon/University of Connecticut/AP

Long-tailed mayflies (Palingenia longicauda) fly over the surface of the Tisza river near Tiszainoka, 84 miles southeast of Budapest, June 20, 2012. Millions of these short-lived mayflies engage in a frantic rush to mate and reproduce before they perish in just a few hours during 'Tiszaviragzas' or Tisza blooming season from late spring to early summer every year. Laszlo Balogh/Reuters

A folk artist holds up a display of mini 'Maohou,' a kind of Chinese folk art made from cicada slough and other Chinese medicine, in Wuhan, central China's Hubei province, October 28, 2006. Stringer/Reuters

A cicada climbs a tree in Princeton, N.J., June 1, 2004. This cicada, a species of the grasshopper-like insect best known for the scratching, screeching 'singing' of the males, lives underground and emerges every 17 years. Daniel Hulshizer/AP

Locusts fly near a car belonging to experts as they map the swarms of locusts near Kmehin in Israel's Negev desert on March 5, 2013. The Israeli Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development said that the location of the locusts which crossed into Israel from neighboring Egypt had been mapped and will be fumigated. Amir Cohen/Reuters

A Chinese vendor shows off a pet cicada at a market in Beijing October 4, 1999. The insects, which make popular pets during the summer and autumn months and are prized for their chirping, cost about 10 yuan each ($1.20). Reuters

Senegalese children run as locusts spread in the capital Dakar September 1, 2004. STR New/Reuters

If you live on the East Coast and enjoy a walk in the woods or a tree-filled park, for the past 17 years you almost certainly have been walking over buried, juvenile cicadas, one of the most remarkable – and annoying – insects on the planet.